We recognise the fact that there is a structural problem with our educational system right from the elementary school
Earlier this week, the Nigerian Institute of Training and Development, NITAD, confirmed what some employers of labour have been stressing in recent years that most Nigerian university graduates are unemployable. The Institute’s chairman in Lagos State, Mr Oluwaseyi Kuton, reportedly said that most Nigerian graduates depended on white collar jobs even when they lacked the required skills to function effectively in their fields. It was on that basis that the Institute organised a training programme that could assist the graduates to acquire more knowledge and update their skills in their areas of specialisation.
We agree with NITAD that Nigerian graduates are poor in terms of their knowledge-base. It is this hard reality that compels some potential employers to send them for basic trainings which they, ordinarily, should have acquired in school. Students now read less but chat away with their blackberry and smart phones, rather than take advantage of the myriad of opportunities available on the social media to do meaningful study.
We recognise the fact that there is a structural problem with our educational system right from the elementary school. Many teachers are forced into the profession by circumstances. Only a few of them got there because of interest or the desire to impart knowledge. Unlike in those days when teachers voluntarily chose teaching as a profession and for that reason gave it their all, the situation is different these days. We observe that many students, who could not cope with the academic demands of their desired courses such as medicine, law, engineering and others, are the ones reverting to education as an alternative. Such people do not love the job and so cannot impart the needed knowledge.
Without doubt, what we are witnessing in our graduates is a reflection of their poor background in the elementary school where they now undergo abstract teachings as opposed to the practical demonstrations needed at that level for their young minds. From that point, they start struggling with learning to the time they get to the university and eventually become half-baked graduates.
We advise all tertiary institutions in the country to make their curricula more realistic. Some curricula call for outright redesigning, because what is required in most organisations these days is the technological know-how of potential employees. That is why lecturers should be more exposed to what goes on in the industry, as many of them are not current with the present-day realities in their areas of study. For this reason, there is a gap between them and the industry. This situation compels their products to start learning certain things anew after graduation. This is not the best ,because schools should prepare students for the possible challenges in the industry after graduation. But the lecturers should be well motivated as many of them earn poor wages. It is only a happy lecturer that can give his best to his students. We must always remember that students are as good as what their teachers teach them.
